Burrow
- Product information
- by Manzu Islam
- Star rating
- Product number
- ISBN 1 900715 90 2
- Publisher
- Peepal Tree Press
- Product link
- http://www.peepaltreepress.com
Manzu Islam’s admirable début novel is set in London in the 1970s, on the frontline of confrontation between the immigrant communities and the thugs of the National Front. In this world of Anti-Nazi League rallies, Rock against Racism concerts and street battles in Brick Lane, Tapan Ali, a student from Bangladesh, is brought face to face with the fragility of his circumstances in Britain. When his marriage of convenience to Adela, a fellow student, fails, he is reported to the immigration service and becomes an ‘illegal’ – a failed asylum seeker, in today’s hideous argot. Tapan enters a subterranean world – the secret city within the city – moving between squalid safe houses and exploitative jobs. His twin enemies are the Immigration Department surveillance squads and the informers, the ‘rats’ who betray illegals to the authorities.
Throughout it all he is sustained by a network of activists and comrades who manage the complex system of evasion and subterfuge. Chief among Tapan’s protectors are the militant Sundar Mia and his cousin Nilufar, a rebel against the strictures of her family, who becomes Tapan’s lover. Eventually, Tapan’s life as a ‘mole’ becomes unsustainable and he makes a decision to surface that will have profound consequences for himself and those around him.
Burrow is a sometimes uneasy mixture of gritty realism and outlandish fantasy, including a bizarre plot to tunnel under the Tower of London and ‘reclaim’ the Koh-i-noor diamond. Nevertheless, this is an absorbing account of those forced to live on the margins of society; lives that politicians and social engineers would much rather we failed to notice.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
